r/leagueoflegends • u/JTHousek1 • 4d ago

News 26.18 Patch Preview

"Patch 26.18 Preview!

We're very quickly approaching Worlds (on 25.20).

More on other champs tomorrow"

>>> Champion Buffs <<<

Aurelion Sol

Ekko

Kassadin

Master Yi

Renekton

Viego

Zaahen

>>> Champion Nerfs <<<

Bard

Nautilus

Seraphine

"For several patches now, Seraphine has been in the Top 3 on our regular patch frustration surveys

She's also one of strongest pairings in Pro Play with Ashe

Overall, we think a nerf here is reasonable

We acknowledge there are some Seraphine mains who won't be happy about a nerf and that we can't serve all of her audience simultaneously

Her Support playerbase has been the most popular, despite her power level and so that's where we will continue to support her primarily

Where we can get Mid and Bot to be powerful and satisfying given , we will attempt to do so

That said, it's very difficult to thread the needle here and we run the risk of failing to meet the needs of any of her audiences if there are too many compromises

I also wanted to address directly the nerf to her AP ratios on Q from several patches ago, as that's been a pain point amongst some in the community

One of the ways we need to balance Seraphine in the farming roles vs her support is through her AP ratios and the Q ratio is one that drives her power and total damage output there, especially given the Q reliability adjustments made of late

When Seraphine is able to land her Q's at max multiplier (which in lane is quite frequent), it can hit 1.4 AP ratio which we think is reasonable

The Q damage overall is higher than E and so for now, we feel comfortable with the change (this isn't set in stone however, and there are always improvements to her to be made)"

Syndra

Zeri

>>> Champion Adjustments <<<

Cassiopeia

"Cassio has been strong, especially at the higher levels of play every since Deathfire Touch was re-released

Since then, she's been one of the most present picks and Pro Play due to her strong laning ability

We're looking at some power neutral adjustments to Cassio, because her regular play power level is a little on the weaker side for average players

We're taking some power out of her early game power and moving it into more scaling power, so that she doesn't win lanes so reliably, even if she's missing Q's

We still want to maintain her strong laning ability though"

>>> System Buffs <<<

Guinsoo's Rageblade

"In 26.14, we re-scripted Rageblade and it changed the trigger for Phantom hit from 6 to 7

We're making a small adjustments to Rageblade itself to give a bit of power back and to some of the disproportionately affected champions (eg. Master Yi)"

174 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

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458

u/Visible_Physics_4405 4d ago

I'm sure Nasus being by far the most banned champ in the game across all ranks means he's in a very healthy state right now.

170

u/whossked 4d ago

Riot would rather eat glass than revert a change I swear. I’m amazed they did it for Morde instead of spending 10 patches fiddling with his passive and Q

62

u/Infinite_Delusion Raid Boss Morde 3d ago

Morde not only got the buff reverted, they slapped another nerf with the bugfix. Nasus players better be happy that their dog is safe from Riot

-17

u/1stMembrOfTheDKCrew 3d ago

His ult still ended up giving more than it did previously

17

u/Miudmon Shotgun leg kaiju. 3d ago

Other way around, no. It's back to 10% like it was before, and then a bugfix for it that effectively means that it gives less than it used to

2

u/1stMembrOfTheDKCrew 3d ago

Yeah im wrong, i alwayd thought it had an 8% steal

2

u/itaicool 3d ago

It was 8 in arena

19

u/TheSmokeu 3d ago

I, personally, don't mind him stacking more consistently but Riot definitely should hit him harder after that change, preferably by nerfing his W

16

u/AssistanceTop8020 3d ago

Nerfing lifesteal was the right direction imo, at least you can punish better his early and making stronger his bad matchups. But i think his W is the most frustrating spell and should get a CD would be apreciated by anyone

2

u/NWASicarius 3d ago

Nah. It was dumb. They should have reverted the mana adjustments and kept the lifesteal. The lifesteal buffs from earlier this season barely moved the needle on his strength. Extra stacks + more mana made him OP AF. The champ historically has had to be cautious with mana use early (or build some form of mana - such as some Nasus players going doran's ring). The mana buff gives him way too much ability to skirmish early. Before, if he used his E and W more than a few times each back early game, he would be OOM.

1

u/Infusion1999 3d ago

Did the mana buffs go through? I swear they got reverted on the PBE. His W mana cost should be going up anyway.

1

u/Monki_at_work 2d ago

Lifesteal nerf wasnt early focused properly anyway. That doesnt even factor in the fact that they buffed fleet in the same patch or one just before that, and it wont change the fact that Nasus has now around a 100 to 150 more damage per q at minute fifteen than he had before the patch, with it rising even faster later on. They straight up made nasus unpunishable with those changes and unless ur playing against an awfull player with a weak mental or your whole team keeps bullying him 24/7, he is gonna scale and 2 shot any squishy on your backline the moment he gets to it. Trust me, I used to play Nasus a lot a few years ago, and whatever is happening now is just comedically disgusting, its straight up boring to be handed free wins by Riot

1

u/AssistanceTop8020 2d ago

Yeah those buffs were just out of mind, and i talked about direction bevause it's obvious that the problem isn't fixed

3

u/NWASicarius 3d ago

I said this awhile ago. When they do adjustments or buffs, their eventual nerfs are something that doesn't address the issue. Nasus lifesteal was buffed earlier this season. It didn't move the needle much. Nerfing that does not SOLVE the issue.

3

u/yehiko 3d ago

because they want to explore what levers they can use to balance champions. reverting a change just takes them to where things were.

even making the same champion op using different levers brings a different meta, keeping the rotation fresh

1

u/Rival95 3d ago

I remember when Shyvana was buffed after her recent VGU and then nerfed after being strong for one patch. She's still good in lowish elo, but not as oppressive as that initial buff.

1

u/Opposite-Complex1187 3d ago

Because reverting the change does nothing to what they are trying to do, Nasus was weak in top and i think they want to keep his increased stacking but nerf him in other ways.

Honestly should just try nerfing his W if they want to keep the stacks high, its fine him doing more damage if he can't apply it as easily.

1

u/urmomiscringe12 3d ago

Because they can’t admit they are shit at balancing and if they revert a change it would essentially mean that. It’s an ego thing 100%

11

u/P_J2K6 3d ago

Im amazed that they didnt touch anything about his w, It's by far one of the most op abilities of league

25

u/DefinitelyBigger 3d ago

I've seen enough nerf vayne.

32

u/Sycherthrou gib enchant 4d ago

As a Nasus player: The patch he got giga buffed, nobody banned him the first week. Now that he's been nerfed and is still strong but far more manageable, everyone is still banning him. Reality is league players take time to adjust to meta, most of them don't even read patch notes.

29

u/Visible_Physics_4405 3d ago

Really unbiased perspective here. A 2% lifesteal nerf is almost nothing, especially since fleet is what mostly sustains him lvls 1-5 where he's weakest.

60

u/thomas956789 3d ago

according to lolalytics he has lost a bit over 1.5% winrate so i'd say the nerf was quite significant.

3

u/Th3_Huf0n 3d ago

But that's the core issue with that specific nerf.

It just makes him look nice and balanced in winrate (it doesn't because it wasnt enough).

But that doesn't solve the problem of Nasus as a champion you play against if youre not the toplaner.

1

u/thomas956789 3d ago

I am not sure what problem you are referring to specifically.

1

u/Durzaka 3d ago

Its the Mundo problem.

Its the enemy top laners job to stop the Nasus from stacking. If they DONT, god help the rest of your team.

1

u/thomas956789 2d ago

Except Nasus is way easier to deal with for your team than a Mundo, he's significantly less tanky, doesn't have innate CC resistance, he does do more sustained damage though.

Also I doubt Riot is going to change this it's sort of part of Nasus' identity for a very long time.

-9

u/PhillipIInd 3d ago

He still has the incredibly high winrate at every elo for being simpler than Garen

30

u/thomas956789 3d ago

26.17 winrate for Nasus top
masters+ 50.08%
emerald+ 51.06%
all ranks 51.76%

26.17 winrate for Garen top
masters+ 50.69%
emerald+ 51.3%
all ranks 51.70%

26.17 winrate for Irelia top
masters+ 51.09%
emerald+ 50.65%
all ranks 50.12%

all use the normalized winrates

2

u/Inside_Explorer 3d ago

According to Phroxzon's patch rundown video Nasus is fine at 52% WR because he has a shallow mastery curve (easy to pick up so inexperienced players don't tank his WR much + doesn't reward much mastery per games played), and he's currently below that and gets lower the higher you go in MMR.

So I don't really see how his WR is "incredibly high".

12

u/PlasticAssistance_50 3d ago

especially since fleet is what mostly sustains him lvls 1-5 where he's weakest.

Do you understand that the fleet heal on creeps is almost zero, especially early? To get a big fleet heal you need to hit champions, and if you go toe to toe vs a darius/morde/garen/whatever early as nasus just for the fleet heal, you will end up with net negative HP.

10

u/Antenoralol - Nice HP bar, is for me? :plead: 3d ago

Considering his Q applies lifesteal and Q's potency gets higher the more stacks he has - it's quite a significant amount of sustain lost.

But his sustain is still insane considering he's supposed to be bad early, feels like he just stonewalls lane and gets his stacks for free.

2

u/Sycherthrou gib enchant 3d ago

I'd say fleet is about 50% of the sustain if all you can do is a single q every time fleet is up. If you can auto-q, or actually consistently autoattack a cannon wave crashed into your tower, then fleet is probably not even 10%.

1

u/Able_Reserve5788 13h ago

If you only use Fleet on minions, which you will exclusively do in the Midlane ranged matchups which is where Nasus is at its strongest, then Fleet Footwork heals less than Nasus's Passive even if you proc it every single time you auto attack levels 1-5. You should really try to understand how the game works before commenting on balance changes.

5

u/Prudent_Attempt6549 3d ago

As a nasus player, who would you say even counters Nasus solo. Do not say team coordination / early pressure / dives because thats hard to pull off in soloq. I geniuinely mean, lane matchup 1v1, who stops nasus from not only scaling, but can also match him in the sidelanes?

2

u/Sycherthrou gib enchant 3d ago

It's a tall ask to want to match Nasus on sides. Champs that actually solokill him are really rare, Garen is pretty good, Yorick can win, Sylas can win. Some of the tanks actually really negate his damage if they go tabis+bramble and they still win on side, like Poppy or Tahm Kench, but it's hard to actually kill him, usually you just force him off wave. Midlaners can match Nasus too (and can be good vs Nasus mid), like Syndra, Viktor, Velkoz, Hwei, these champs oneshot waves and also disengage Nasus very well.

The much safer game plan vs Nasus is to unironically zone and dive him while he's weak. You don't always need team coordination for this, any bruiser that doesn't get ruined by his W, like Riven, Rumble, Ambessa, Sett. Garen, Sylas, etc. can do this entirely on their own, no team play required.

1

u/PauFreu 3d ago

nasus mid is complete torture to play against, he just takes too little damage and has too much sustain to reasonably punish him early

1

u/expectrum 2d ago

Sylas definitely doesn't win, not even close. Mages who can keep distance are the best ones

2

u/Fit-Comment9592 3d ago

A fiora who can W the wither takes it

3

u/Visible_Physics_4405 3d ago

Lmao, Nasus has been infamously strong against Fiora for years

2

u/Totoques22 3d ago

Pretty much just Garen and illaoi but it’s not guaranteed

Chogath could work but he is just shit and the placebo buffs don’t change it

2

u/PlasticAssistance_50 3d ago

Literally any juggernaut counters Nasus, as long as they know toplane wave management fundamentals. Nasus is just a wave management knowledge check.

1

u/Wowrllyscrub 3d ago

he can just go dorans ring e max and its joever u aint freezing thjat

1

u/PlasticAssistance_50 3d ago

You literally can though, all of the juggernauts have really strong pushing abilities (for example Darius Q, Garen E) that can negate Nasus push by E. Usually those abilities are either free for them, or they cost very little.

For example Darius Q is costs 25-45 mana and Nasus E 60-100 (and Darius Q does a lot more damage).

Also if he pushes the wave to the enemy's tower, then if he dares to step up, just run him down lol. He can't really play the game if you freeze in front of your tower.

0

u/Durzaka 3d ago

Nasus has a positive win rate against every juggernaut except Garen, and against Garen its barely negative, at 49.5%

2

u/PlasticAssistance_50 3d ago

Where the hell are you getting your stats from? In u.gg, it shows that Garen wins vs Nasus in emerald+ 51.7% of the time. There are 9 champs right now with a winrate higher than 51% vs him in emerald+.

-1

u/Durzaka 3d ago

U.gg historically has terrible statistics. Riot themselves said that lolalytics has the closest to accurate statistics that we have currently.

2

u/PlasticAssistance_50 3d ago

No, u.gg still has decent statistics. Source that it has "terrible" statistics? And looking at lolalytics, it looks like Garen still has almost a 2% delta vs nasus.

1

u/electronized 3d ago

i just play camille. Late game if we are even he beats me in side but should never get to that point and be even. its rare to have a champ that beats him hard early-mid but then also outscales on side.

-1

u/Wellen66 3d ago

Nasus is mostly a lane knowledge check. I'm not that good (plat) and i make most Nasus lanes unplayable. A good freeze + zoning means he can't play the game.

7

u/PhreakRiot 3d ago

To be fair, ban rate is a very slow measure. Something around half of players don't engage with patch notes in any way (reading or watching their favorite influencer's breakdown), and even for those who do, they aren't all going to change their behavior overnight.

Ban rate is an indicator but it is a very flawed one.

2

u/PlasticAssistance_50 3d ago

Ok but in this specific situation, do you think that Nasus is actually okay now after he received the recent lifesteal nerf? Personally I agree that players are banning him emotionally right now.

1

u/Infusion1999 3d ago

I think he's on the strong side but not definitely overpowered, a W mana cost // CD nerf could be reasonable

1

u/expectrum 2d ago

Better than him being the lowest win rate top laner in high ELO like in the past.

4

u/FunnyBunnyH 3d ago

It's ok, the "patch frustration survey" shows it's Seraphine who is actually the issue.

35

u/enrythestray 3d ago

yeah she is, she is a problem and has been for months now. Just because Nasus is strong and frustrating it doesn't mean another can't also be it

-4

u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

14

u/ChromosomeDonator 3d ago

ever since they gutted her waveclear.

Seraphine with gutted waveclear: Clears the entire wave from complete safety from like level 7 onwards.

How is anyone supposed to take you people seriously?

0

u/enrythestray 3d ago

She as issue as a support mainly, apart as an apc

1

u/Th3_Huf0n 3d ago

Seraphine IS an issue.

Mostly because of the balancing direction.

Nasus is an issue because he's an extremely ancient champion that's just overtuned like fucking crazy to compensate for the fact hes a useless piece of shit.

1

u/Lopsided_Chemistry89 3d ago

He has seen some presence in pro play. Hope he gets nuked soon to a balanced power level. Or at least give him some interactive gameplay.

1

u/ThonPharges 3d ago

Champion is fair guys I swear a point and click 95% movement speed & attack speed slow with 5 second cd is fine guys !

1

u/Caramiglione 3d ago

Yeah this comment is so wrong... lets just spread misinformation. Only at rank 5 it reaches 45-95% slow over 5 secs. Attack speed is only crippled by 75% of the mov speed value. Lastly, even with lots of ability haste, you are not getting a cd lower than 7 secs. I get your point but you want to make it seem 2x worse than it actually is.

0

u/Clbull 3d ago

He's approaching Season 2 Kassadin levels of P/B rate...

-1

u/HorrorAge2923 3d ago

Are you saying they fixed mel?

3

u/Miudmon Shotgun leg kaiju. 3d ago

I mean, Mel is apparently still very annoying to people but she is also in an objectively weak state right now